Pioneers' Bats Go Cold in Loss to A.L. Johnson

What a difference 24 hours can make for the New Providence varsity baseball team.

One day after a 19-run scoring binge against Roselle, the Pioneers couldn't get their bats going on Wednesday afternoon in a 4-2 loss to Arthur L. Johnson in Clark.  

“We were hitting the ball, but we were hitting them right at them,” New Providence coach Chris Brodeur said. “We had some good contact on the ball, but every time we needed the ball to drop, it didn’t drop.”

For a while, Pioneers' starter Andy Davis made sure Johnson’s offense remained dormant as well, but the Crusaders eventually broke through in the fifth against the tall righthander.

In what was only the fourth game New Providence has played since April 11, Davis went 4 1/3 innings, but he gave up a tie-breaking, two-run homer to right-center field in the bottom of the fifth, and that was all the Crusaders would need to snap the Pioneers' three-game winning streak.

“Andy did a great job to start the game; he was very strong, he’s improved a lot since his sophomore year, when we first started really working on pitching, and this was probably the best game he’s thrown in his career,” Brodeur said. “I’m proud of him for that start.”

The Pioneers jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a home run of their own, a leadoff laser over the left-field fence, off the bat of cleanup hitter Joe Randazzo in the second inning.

“It’s fantastic,” Brodeur said of the pop Randazzo provides in the middle of the lineup. “Joe has got incredible potential for power. I hope he keeps doing it. I told him last night, 'you’ve got to do it six more weeks. Then I don’t care if you hit another home run in your life.'”

Davis held up the slim lead through three innings. The senior pitched out of a two-on, two-out situation in the first by getting a strikeout on a high fastball, and then cruised through the second and third.

The Pioneers were in position to add to the lead in the top of the fourth after Randazzo walked and third baseman Marc Giacalone singled to center, but Doug Pastore’s fly ball settled in the leftfielder’s glove for the final out.

Davis then ran into trouble in the bottom of the frame. He got a long, loud out to left-center field when Joe Meyers tracked down the ball, but then allowed an infield hit and a bloop single down the right-field line before a sacrifice fly tied the score.

Davis worked himself into further trouble with a walk and a hit batter, prompting a visit from Brodeur. The brief conference worked, as Davis induced a groundout to Giacalone to end the inning.

“[Davis’] goal is really to pitch to contact, keep the ball down so we can get ground balls and we can get outs,” Brodeur said. “We have a lot of confidence in our defense, and most of the time, it comes through for us.”

The Crusaders recorded two quick outs in the fifth, but New Providence left fielder David Dinerman walked to bring up the top of the batting order. Leadoff man Joe Meyers then had a 3-1 count when Dinerman took off for second before Johnson’s pitcher threw the ball. Johnson easily tagged the junior out to end the threat.

After Davis fizzled in the fifth, Brodeur called on senior Chris Fezza to work out of the jam, and the righthander stepped up in a big way. After the runner on second took off, Fezza got a pop up to shallow center that Meyers corralled and tossed to second to complete an inning-ending double play.  

New Providence again put two runners on with two outs in the sixth, but Giacalone flied out to right. Giacalone came in to pitch for the Pioneers in the bottom of the frame and gave up a run as Johnson stretched the lead to 4-1.

Mike Kennedy laced a single to center in the top of the seventh and stole two bases, then scored on a groundout by Brayan Arroyo. But that was all the Pioneers could muster as their winning streak came to an end.

The Pioneers will play a Union County Tournament preliminary game today at 4 p.m. in New Providence.